Paper Currency. 



abandonment of every attempt to 



The amount of paper money actually issued under the act referred 

 to, is somewhat in doubt. The limit was two hundred millions; 

 Joseph Nourse, who was register of the treasury in 1828, places the 

 amount at $241,552,780, and the amount given in the treasury state- 

 ment of 1843 was $242,100,176. The aggregate loss to the people of 

 the country from the currency issued was estimated by Secretary 

 Woodbury, to be $196,000,000. 



It is generally supposed that the holder of a bond or any other obli- 

 gation issued by the government holds something which is secured 

 by a first mortgage on all the property in the country; but in case of 

 a failure on the part of the government to provide for both the inter- 

 est and the principal of any of its outstanding obligations, the holder 

 has no remedy by a suit at law, and cannot enforce his claim any more 

 than as though his claim was against the late Confederate States. All 

 he can do is to supplicate the favor of the government — a mode of 

 collection which the holders of continental money found to be an un- 

 reliable power.* 



Peletiah Webster in his "Political Essays" (Phila. 1791), says of 

 the continental paper money: " We have suffered more from this cause 

 than from every other cause or calamity. It has killed more men, 

 pervaded and corrupted the choicest interests of our country more, 

 and done more injustice than even the arms and artifices of our enemy. 

 If it saved the State, it has also polluted the equity of our laws, cor- 

 rupted the justice of public administration, destroyed the fortunes of 

 thousands who had most confidence in it, enervated the trade, hus- 

 bandry, and manufactures of our country, and went far to destroy 

 the morality of our people." 



A careful review of the situation clearly proves that the statement 

 ] s not too strongly drawn. Business was completely demoralized. 

 Men seemed to have lost confidence in each other. Commercial honor 

 had gone out of fashion, and breaches of trust were the rule. 



These experiences were so trying and bitter that, in 1787, when the 

 -federal Constitution was framed, there was a strong feeling in favor 

 j> a provision which should prohibit the issuing of paper money by a 

 State or the general government. Washington, Jefferson, Madison 

 and most of the other distinguished patriots, talked, wrote and other- 

 ^!l^£their influence in favor of such a provision. But there were 



